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The study protocol was approved by the ethics board of each hospital where necessary, and written informed consent was obtained from all patients or their legal representatives where appropriate.

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No individual participant data is reported that would require consent to publish from the participant (or legal parent or guardian for children).

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All authors have provided information on potential conflicts of interests directly or indirectly related to the work submitted in the journal’s disclosure forms. KS received research grant paid to the insitituion from Thermofisher, as well as educational grants and support to attend meetings. PS and BM received research support paid to the Institution from bioMerieux and Thermofisher. AK received support from BRAHMS to attend meetings and fulfilled speaking engagements. PH received Lecture honorarium (ThermoFisher Scientific, Beckman Coulter), Educational support honorarium (bioMérieux) Clinical research grants (ThermoFisher Scientific, bioMérieux). DCW is an employee of BRAHMS GmbH, which holds patent rights on the procalcitonin and mid-regional proadrenomedullin assay. All other authors reported no conflicts of interest.

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